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After Passing On Senate Race, Charlie Bass Encouraged Scott Brown To Run

OLD CUTLINE: Massachusetts Senator-elect, Republican Scott Brown greets supporters after speaking at his victory celebration on January 19, 2010 in Boston, Massachusetts. Brown defeated Democrat Martha Coakley in a special election to fill the seat of late U.S. Senator Edward M. Kennedy.

After de­cid­ing not to run for the Sen­ate, former New Hamp­shire GOP Rep. Charles Bass called former Mas­sachu­setts Sen. Scott Brown to en­cour­age him to run in­stead.

“I am not en­dors­ing any oth­er can­did­ate at this point, but Scott Brown is the kind of can­did­ate who brings an ele­ment of di­versity to a party that’s been ba­sic­ally ob­struc­tion­ist,” Bass said in a phone in­ter­view with Na­tion­al Journ­al. “I think Scott Brown has shown he could win based on be­ing a good in­de­pend­ent voice that has Amer­ica’s best in­terest at heart.”

Ac­cord­ing to Bass, Brown didn’t make a de­cision on the phone.

“He didn’t make any com­mit­ment one way or an­oth­er. I told him this was not go­ing to be a chal­lenge I was tak­ing on, and urged him to give the op­por­tun­ity ser­i­ous con­sid­er­a­tion,” Bass said.

When Brown was asked about his in­terest Sunday dur­ing a “Fox News Sunday” ap­pear­ance, he said: “With re­gard to my polit­ic­al fu­ture, listen, there’s a role for me. This isn’t about me, it’s about … let­ting people know who we are as a party and how we can move for­ward with a pos­it­ive mes­sage to con­vince people how to vote for us.”

Bass said that he be­lieved that Demo­crat­ic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, whose pop­ular­ity across the state is still high, could be beaten by the “right can­did­ate at the time” ““ es­pe­cially if an anti-Demo­crat­ic wave emerged in the wake of the dis­astrous Obama­care rol­lout. He said he de­cided not to run be­cause he wanted to pur­sue oth­er op­por­tun­it­ies in the private sec­tor. Bass ad­ded he thought Re­pub­lic­ans would be bet­ter off with a can­did­ate with a fresh­er pro­file — one without the bag­gage ac­crued from run­ning 32 cam­paigns in the state throughout his ca­reer.

But he ac­know­ledged the bench of pro­spect­ive Re­pub­lic­an Sen­ate can­did­ates in New Hamp­shire was thin, if Brown de­cided not to run. He noted Manchester may­or Ted Gat­sas, who is up for re-elec­tion Tues­day, as a pos­sible con­tender. “Jeanne Shaheen can be beaten by the right can­did­ate at the right time,” Bass said. “I’m not sure I’m the right can­did­ate. A good can­did­ate step­ping up to ad­dress her po­s­i­tions on is­sues could have a very ef­fect­ive mes­sage.”

Shaheen was one of the first Sen­ate Demo­crats to dis­tance her­self from the rocky im­ple­ment­a­tion of the pres­id­ent’s health care law, call­ing for an ex­ten­sion of the Obama­care en­roll­ment peri­od. Shaheen won elec­tion in 2008 with 52 per­cent of the vote.

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Sherrod Brown (D-OH) are threatening to block the spending bill—and prevent the Senate from leaving town—"because it would not extend benefits for retired coal miners for a year or pay for their pension plans. The current version of the bill would extend health benefits for four months. ... Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) on Thursday afternoon moved to end debate on the continuing resolution to fund the government through April 28. But unless Senate Democrats relent, that vote cannot be held until Saturday at 1 a.m. at the earliest, one hour after the current funding measure expires."

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PARLIAMENT VOTED 234-56

South Korean President Impeached

1 hours ago

THE LATEST

The South Korean parliament voted on Friday morning to impeach President Park Geun-hye over charges of corruption, claiming she allowed undue influence to a close confidante of hers. Ms. Park is now suspended as president for 180 days. South Korea's Constitutional Court will hear the case and decide whether to uphold or overturn the impeachment.

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CLOSED FOR INAUGURAL ACTIVITIES

NPS: Women’s March Can’t Use Lincoln Memorial

1 hours ago

THE DETAILS

Participants in the women's march on Washington the day after inauguration won't have access to the Lincoln Memorial. The National Park Service has "filed documents securing large swaths of the national mall and Pennsylvania Avenue, the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial for the inauguration festivities. None of these spots will be open for protesters."

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2.1 PERCENT IN 2017

President Obama Boosts Civilian Federal Pay

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THE LATEST

President Obama on Thursday announced a pay raise for civilian federal employees of 2.1 percent come January 2017. He had said multiple times this year that salaries would go up 1.6 percent, so the Thursday announcement came as a surprise. The change was likely made to match the 2.1 percent increase in salary that members of the military will receive.

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SHUTDOWN LOOMING

House Approves Spending Bill

20 hours ago

BREAKING

The House has completed it's business for 2016 by passing a spending bill which will keep the government funded through April 28. The final vote tally was 326-96. The bill's standing in the Senate is a bit tenuous at the moment, as a trio of Democratic Senators have pledged to block the bill unless coal miners get a permanent extension on retirement and health benefits. The government runs out of money on Friday night.